“We haven’t taken a college position player that high in a while, but he’s a kid we’ve known for so long, back to high school,” general manager Ben Cherington explained to CSNNE.com. “Typically, it’s not something we do — bringing in a draftee from the previous draft into camp.

“But we felt in this case, we knew him well enough, that he’d been through a lot, played a lot of baseball — college, Team USA and played a premium position. We just want to get him exposed to the major league staff and we felt like it was appropriate to do it at this case.”

The Red Sox selected the Arizona State product with the 24th pick in June’s draft.

Marrero won’t be the only shortstop prospect in Fort Meyers, Fla., this spring. Xander Bogaerts, the organization’s top prospect, has also been invited. Bogaerts, 20, hit .326 with five homers and 17 RBIs in 23 games for Double-A Portland after spending much of the year in Single-A with the Salem Red Sox.